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By Duraid AdnanTHE NEW YORK TIMES • Thursday November 14, 2013 6:19 AM

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoHADI MIZBAN | ASSOCIATED PRESSShiite worshippers in Karbala, Iraq, flail themselves with chains as a sign of grief as part of a ceremony marking Ashura. Bombs killed nine men during a similar ceremony in Baqouba yesterday.

BAGHDAD — A series of bomb blasts and gunfire attacks swept Iraq yesterday, mostly targeting
Shiites who were marking one of their holiest religious events.

At least 27 people were killed in nine attacks that stretched to the northern cities of Tikrit
and Mosul and to the regions west of Baghdad and Fallujah.

The attack with the largest number of casualties was in Baqouba, north of Baghdad, as a group of
Shiite pilgrims began marking Ashura, the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a
grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

As Shiite mourners flailed themselves in unison in a traditional public demonstration of grief,
three bombs ripped through the crowd, killing nine people and wounding 35, medical and security
sources said.

“We were crying on the death of our Imam Hussein, and now our sadness is turned into the death
of the brothers that were killed today,” said Ali Zuhair, 30.

“We will never stop loving our imam, and they will not stop us with their explosions,” said
Zuhair, who was wounded in his left hand and leg.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

In previous years, the commemoration of Ashura, like other Shiite religious events and
pilgrimages that play a role in shaping Shiite identity, has been marred by attacks by Sunni
extremists that highlight the country’s sectarian divisions. But yesterday’s violence also struck
Sunni areas.

The mayor of the western town of Fallujah, Adnan Hussein, was assassinated by a sniper, police
said.

In Al-Karma, south of Fallujah, an improvised bomb exploded near a police officer’s house. When
neighbors gathered, three more bombs exploded, killing four of them.

Security forces were also targeted yesterday. In Tikrit, a suicide car bomber drove his vehicle
into a police checkpoint, setting off a blast that killed six policemen and two civilians. West of
Baghdad in Abu Ghraib, a bomb killed three policemen on patrol. In the northern city of Mosul,
gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint, killing two policemen, police said.